A long day...

E1 at 6 1/2 years old (she insists on that 1/2) drew this today. She really worked on it. First with pencil, then colored pencils and marker. I am amazed! Her dad's genes. She's sending the drawing to Daddy because he really likes Spongebob too.
I just realized that I should send drawing supplies to Hubby in the next care package. He can maybe capture some of the things he sees over there.
A couple months ago, E1 received a grant from Our Military Kids for art classes. You should have seen how proud she was when she received the certificate and patch from them! She sent them a nice handmade thank you card.

E2 had a rough day today. Really missing Daddy. We ended up talking a lot about him and we watched the videos he made before he left. In them, he reads books to the kids. She only ate egg sandwiches today. Something Daddy usually cooks for her. I think it helped her to reconnect with him.

I never made it to the gym today but the baby stairmaster helped. I should count how many times a day I follow E3 up and down and up the stairs.

We played scrabble, E1 kicked my butt, triple word scores did it. E2 was making her own words. daddy was one of them. We quit when E3 woke from his nap because he likes to eat the letters.

I scooped a ton of plums off of the ground and into the trash can. Picked a bunch more and shared with neighbors. Still a full tree.

I partially drained the pool. A couple levels were high so I drained and refilled with fresh water. That took forever. It should be ready for swimming tomorrow!

Looks like Roxie will NOT be going on a diet pill afterall. The vet called and due to her high liver enzymes, he didn't think it was wise to start her on the medication at this time. Her further tests showed that her liver functions properly, but since the drug is new, he didn't want to risk doing more harm than good. I'm still gradually cutting down her calories. I need to find a level that causes her to lose weight, but not eat every non-food item around her. She really is a pig in a dog costume.

I was doing just fine!

Tonight, I was working upstairs in my office. I’m up there late almost every night. My ears hear a familiar sound, the sound of my Hubby’s car driving up the driveway. I’ve heard this sound countless times while working. His car has a unique sound and so often he works late and I hear his car, look out the window, and he’s home. For a brief moment, I forget that he’s in Iraq. My stomach has the same butterflies it always gets when he comes home from work. When I come home in the middle of the day, see his car, and realize that he’s home early, I have the same butterflies. He still makes me weak in the knees.
Well, tonight was different. My ears played tricks on me. His car is still parked in the same spot. No one drove up the driveway.
I broke down in tears. I miss him so much.

What am I doing?

I began blogging pretty recently. Initially, I thought of it as a nice way to document this history-making year. We are in the middle of a tumultuous time in our nation's history. It is a turning-point and I'm not sure which way we are turning. My Hubby is away at war, and as my mom just reminded me during our phone conversation, he may not come back.
I'm finding that posting myself, reading and/or commenting at other blogs is very therapeutic. Almost all of the information on the war, I find online. I find that there are many other mil-spouses that are going through, or have gone through what I am dealing with right now.
Today I was reading a blog that was linked on one of my daily reads. On the sidebar there were adorable pictures of a young couple in love. This young woman's blog was fun to read. Eventually, I saw that she called herself a "widow, but not technically".
I read her early posts and saw that early this year her boyfriend was killed in Iraq. This yanked me right back into the reality that we all face as families and friends of those who serve our country.
Here at home we still face all the same, usually meaningless, day-to-day challenges. A world away people are trying to kill my Hubby and many others.
Sometimes I feel guilty that I'm here at home, enjoying all the luxuries that modern American life brings. I've decided that I'm still going to post my day-to-day crap. That's my life... but that doesn't mean that I'm not constantly thinking of my Hubby.

I remember when...

and I still like cows.

Rain??!!

I woke to rain today. Real rain. More than the usual just-enough-to-spot-the-windshield rain. It's the driest rainy season on record. I love sunny days, but you really can have too much of a good thing.
I moved here in May, 12 years ago. After the first 3 months of sunny day after sunny day, I yelled out one day "Come on already! Rain!" Since then, I've gotten use to the lack of weather here. I still laugh when there is slight precipitation and the news anchors say "Stormwatch"'
I really miss lying in bed and listening to the rain and distant thunder.

THAT'S NOT CHOCOLATE!!

Went to the San Diego Zoo today. A beautiful zoo that I had not been to since I was 4 years old. Me, the 3 kidlets and friends of mine that had guest passes from their family membership. 3 adults and 5 kids in 2 cars trekked to the zoo. It was a great day. The girls wanted to take pictures of the camels to send to Daddy since we just received pictures of camels from him. I got a good workout walking around the zoo pushing 2, sometimes 3, kids in the double stroller for 5 hours. We saw a lot of the amazing animals before it became busy and crowded at the zoo.
On the ride home the kids were doing fine. We were just past the Anna Nicole Memorial Power Plant and I glanced back at the kids. E2 was asleep, E1 was drinking water and looking at the scenery, E3 was covered with chocolate on his lap, hands and face. E1 must have given him a piece of the chocolate doughnut she had earlier today. I continue driving for a few more seconds and think "there.....aren't....any...doughnuts...left...and...E1...never...gives..him..food..without.asking." I glance back again at my happy little boy and realize THAT'S NOT CHOCOLATE!
I had just looked back there and he had been clean! Only 1/2 mile to the next exit! Exit and pull over, yes I saw the "emergency parking only" sign, but if this wasn't an emergency, what is! How could something so BIG come out of someone so little?! Luckily I have worked both in a clinical microbiology lab and on a farm. Therefore, I have seen a lot of gross things in my life and I have a strong stomach. I've been changing diapers for most of the last 6 years and this tops the list. An entire package of wipes and a bottle of water and he is good to go. A clean diaper and clothes and we're back on the road.
There were a couple traffic accidents just north of our emergency exit. A few minutes earlier and we probably would have witnessed or been involved in one of them. I guess the diaper blow-out was a good thing. A nice bath at home and then I disassemble the car seat and sterilize it.
Still a great day.

Who Cares!

OK, have I been sleeping in a cave? Am I the only one that doesn't understand what the big deal is about a soccer player moving to Los Angeles? Play-by-play of their arrival at the airport? Helicopter following their car with live aerial shots? WHAT?
Now last night I had the TV on NBC, can't remember what I had been watching, it was on in the backround, and an hour-long special comes on about Victoria Beckham. All about her adventure of moving to America. The differences in language, finding the correct multi-million-dollar house, missing her family for 3 WEEKS. It was disgusting. What was worse was that I watched most of it! It was like a train wreck, I couldn't help myself. My husband called me from the other side of the world during the show and I PAUSED IT! Oh no I didn't want to miss a bit.
Yes, David Beckham is H.O.T.. but I've seen better